Super Junior (Korean: 슈퍼주니어 Japanese: スーパージュニア), often referred to as SJ or SuJu (슈주), is a popular boy band from South Korea formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2005. The group debuted with 12 members: Leeteuk (Leader), Heechul, Han Geng, Yesung, Kangin, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kibum and later added a 13th member named Kyuhyun; they are one of the largest boy bands in the world. As of 2010, 10 members are active, due to Han Geng’s lawsuit with SM Entertainment which led to him leaving the group (now pursuing his own singing career in the Mandarin-Pop entertainment industry), Kangin’s temporary leave of absence for mandatory military service and Kibum’s pursuit of an acting career. However, the other members have insisted that the three (Kangin, Kibum and Han Geng) are still part of the group, the group also mentioned that they are saddened by Han Geng’s departure from the group.

Super Junior has released and contributed in 20 different kinds of records with varying degrees of success. Over the years, they have been divided into smaller sub groups, simultaneously targeting different music industries and audiences. Largely due to Super Junior’s success as entertainers, other Korean entertainment managements began to train their music groups in other areas of entertainment, such as acting and hosting. In addition to their commercial success, Super Junior has earned seven music awards from the M.net Asian Music Awards, eleven from the Golden Disk Awards, and is the second singing group to win Favorite Artist Korea at the 2008 MTV Asia Awards after JTL in 2003.

History

In 2001, the company held their first overseas casting auditions and discovered Han Geng in Beijing, China, who was chosen from among three thousand applicants. That same year, Yesung was discovered under Seoul’s casting system. Sungmin and Donghae became trainees after jointly winning the first place in Best Outward Appearance in an SM-sponsored contest. In 2002, Heechul and Kangin were recruited along with Kibum, who was discovered in Los Angeles. Siwon was recruited in 2003 after being scouted at 16 in front of his high school, and Ryeowook in 2004, in which the latter was discovered through the Chin Chin Youth Festival singing competition. In 2005, Shindong was selected. The last member, Cho Kyuhyun, was then discovered after winning third place at the Chin Chin Singing Competition in 2005.

Not long after boy band TVXQ’s debut in 2003, news about Lee’s unprecedented plans of forming another boy band quickly spread on the Internet. In early 2005, Lee confirmed the news and announced that an all-boy project group of twelve members would debut near the end of the year, promoting this singing group to be “The Gateway to Stardom of Asia.” Lee announced that that most members in this group were chosen because of their performing experiences as actors, MCs, models, and radio hosts prior debut. Heechul and Kibum were already established entertainers, and most of the other members had already made various kinds of appearances on television and media. Highly inspired by the rotational concept of Japan’s girl group Morning Musume, this group would also experience line-up changes, with new members replacing some selected members every year to keep the group constantly young and all-rounded. This concept was then newly introduced to the K-pop market.

For a while the group was rumored to be called O.V.E.R, the acronym for “Obey the Voice for Each Rhythm.” However, before the group settled with their current name, SM simply referred to them as Junior, a representation of the members’ young ages when they first became SM trainees. After the members’ showcased their different talents to the company at a picnic, the company finalized their concept name to Super Junior. The group thereafter became officially Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior. Leeteuk said on Star Golden Bell “at first Super Junior name was SM Junior, but after Lee Soo Man see our performance and he say we have super talent and quickly change our name to Super Junior”

Super Junior 05 made their pre-debut on the Korean channel Mnet on September 11, 2005. At the showcase, they performed various styles of hip hop dancing. The group danced to B2K’s “Take It To The Floor.” Han Geng, Eunhyuk, and Donghae also performed a separate dance away from the group, dancing to Usher’s “Caught Up.” However, the performance did not air on television until May 16, 2006 as a segment in the Super Junior Show, the group’s first television documentary.

2005–2006: The Super Junior project

Super Junior 05 debuted on SBS’s music program Popular Song on November 6, 2005, performing their first single, “TWINS (Knock Out).” A digital single with “TWINS (Knock Out)”, “You are the one”, and three additional tracks were released online on November 8. A physical CD single was scheduled to be released the following week but a more complete album, SuperJunior05 (TWINS), was released on December 6, 2005 instead. Their debut album sold 28,536 copies in the first month of release and debuted at #3 in the monthly chart of December 2005. In that same month, they released “Show Me Your Love,” a collaboration single with TVXQ. “Show Me Your Love” became the best-selling record of December 2005, selling 49,945 copies that month.

In February 2006, Super Junior 05 began performances for “Miracle”, the second promotional single from their debut album. “Miracle” was the group’s first single to peak #1 in online music charts of South Korea as well as the music charts of Thailand, drawing interest from international markets. As promotions for “Miracle” came to an end, SM Entertainment began selecting new members for Super Junior’s second line-up project, Super Junior 06. The company even prepared a list of chosen members that were to graduate from the group. However, no members were taken out and a thirteenth member was added instead in May 2006. The line-up project has been abandoned since then, and the group became known as just Super Junior, without the suffix “05″.

2006–2007: Don’t Don and breakthrough success

On May 23, 2006, SM Entertainment revealed the thirteenth member Kyuhyun, who was discovered through a singing competition in 2005. They released their single “U” online for free download on May 25, 2006 in their official website. “U” had over 400,000 downloads within five hours of release and it ultimately exceeded 1.7 million downloads, crashing the server. The physical single of “U” with a total of three tracks was released on June 6, 2006, eventually selling over 81,000 units. The single became one of Korea’s most popular songs of the year, yielding #1 spots for five consecutive weeks on two of Korea’s top music programs. By the end of the year, Super Junior collected over seven awards in five of South Korea’s top music award ceremonies, winning the title as Best New Group of 2006.

Super Junior’s second official album was intended for a late 2006 release, but due to several accidental setbacks, Don’t Don was not released until September 20, 2007. Within the first three days of release, offline album sales for Don’t Don passed the 11,000 unit mark, debuting as #1 in all available offline charts. It finished the September monthly album sales as #1. 60,000 units were shipped by the first week of release and additional copies were printed. Although Don’t Don received rather bland reviews from critics, the album sold more than 160,000 copies by the end of the year, becoming the second best-selling record of 2007. The album also found success in Taiwan; it broke the record for being the highest ranked Korean album on the G-music Combo Billboard Chart, surpassing the albums of TVXQ and Shinhwa. Super Junior’s album also ranked above Taiwanese boy band K One, whose album debuted at #6.

2008–2009: Beyond Korea and Sorry, Sorry

On October 2, 2007, SM Entertainment announced a third Super Junior sub-unit Super Junior-M, a subgroup designated for the Chinese market. While the creation of the subgroup created a brief controversy between the fans and the management, Super Junior-M became a phenomenal success in China, having the opportunity to have two sold-out concerts in Hong Kong, top weekly ratings with their appearance on variety programs, and becoming the idol group with the most endorsement contracts in China. With the absence of almost half of the members in Korea, a fourth Super Junior sub-unit was created that same year to prevent Super Junior from disappearing in the Korean music industry. With five members from Super Junior-T and Yesung, they formed the subgroup, Super Junior-Happy. Super Junior-Happy released the EP Cooking? Cooking! On June 5, 2008, and promotions ended on September 7, lasting for four months. In November 2008, Super Junior-T returned, this time as a singing group in Japan, called SuperJunior-TxMoeyan; this group added Moeyan, a famous two-woman comedy group in Japan. “ROCK&GO”, a Japanese-language version of “Rokuko”, debuted at #19 on the Oricon Daily Charts and jumped to #2 three days later.

2010: Bonamana and vast Asian popularity

On May 6, 2010, the teaser for their fourth studio album, Bonamana, was released through SM Entertainment’s YouTube page. The full music video of the lead single of the same name was released on May 12 and full album was released on May 13 in South Korea. The album was released by the group with only 10 members, without Han Geng who has terminated his contract with SM Entertainment, Kibum who is involved in acting career and Kangin who had enlisted himself in to the Korean army. Their fourth album had also broken a personal record for the group by having over 200,000 pre-orders. On May 14, Super Junior had their comeback stage on KBS Music Bank, performing title track “미인아 (Bonamana)” and “나쁜여자 (Boom Boom)”.

On August 16, 2011, It was announced that Bonamana remained as Top 1 in Taiwan’s Music Charts for 62 weeks (more than a year) breaking their own previous record of the said chart.

With one day left to the entrance exams/SATs, it seems like idols, IU, Yoo Seung Ho, SHINee‘s Taemin, and Kang Seung Yoon have confirmed that they will not be attending college this year!

IU already revealed earlier on that she doesn’t plan on going to college for a while, so it’s no surprise that she won’t be taking the college entrance exams this year. Instead, she’s currently focusing on her comeback preparations which she has hinted to be soon.

Actor Yoo Seung Ho has also revealed that he won’t be taking the entrance exam in order to give his undivided attention to acting. His agency stated before that if Yoo Seung Ho finds an area that he wants to study, he will start the process of applying to colleges then.

SM Entertainment recently announced that SHINee’s Taemin will not be taking the entrance exam as well. Due to SHINee’s hectic overseas schedules, Taemin has been unable to prepare fully and therefore would not be submitting his application for the exam.

Finally, ‘Superstar K2′s Kang Seung Yoon, who is currently under YG Entertainment, has declined from making an appearance at the entrance exams. YG Entertainment have stated saying, “Kang Seung Yoon will not be taking the college entrance exam. Instead, he will be focusing on preparing for his upcoming promotions as a trainee, and give his all for ‘High Kick 3‘… His thought is that he desires to do his best for the tasks given to him.”

A little while back, Super Junior‘s Kim Ryeowook left a post on Twitter, expressing his gratitude and appreciation for the members and everyone who have lent their support and love throughout the six years since Super Junior made its debut on 6 November 2005 with “Twins (Knock Out)“.

He wrote, “It’s been 6 years since Super Junior’s debut. I think we’ve made 6 years time pass with a lot of people’s love~ Thank you very much~ And each of the members, I am very thankful to each of the members>< I really really love you~♥ Ryeowook”

Ryeowook also posted two pictures of the band along with his tweet, showing their strong friendship and bond.

Fans conveyed their well-wishes and thoughts as they left responses such as, “We, ELFs, will always love you all” and “Happy anniversary, Super Junior will always be with ELF!”